TRUMP CAUGHT GIVING MILLIONS OFF the BOOKS, UNDER the TABLE

Author: oromagi
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#1
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TRUMP ORGANIZATION CFO PLEADS GUILTY in TAX EVASION CASE
By MICHAEL R. SISAK@AP NEWS

NEW YORK (AP) — A top executive at former President Donald Trump’s family business pleaded guilty Thursday to evading taxes in a deal with prosecutors that could potentially make him a star witness against the company at a trial this fall.

Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to all 15 of the charges he faced in the case.

In a low, somewhat hoarse voice, he admitted taking in over $1.7 million worth of untaxed perks -- including school tuition for his grandchildren, free rent for a Manhattan apartment and lease payments for a luxury car -- and explicitly keeping some of the plums off the books.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to sentence Weisselberg to five months in New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex, although he will be eligible for release much earlier if he behaves well behind bars. The judge said Weisselberg will have to pay nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest and complete five years of probation.

The plea bargain also requires Weisselberg to testify truthfully as a prosecution witness when the Trump Organization goes on trial in October on related charges.

The company is accused of helping Weisselberg and other executives avoid income taxes by failing to report their full compensation accurately to the government. Trump himself is not charged in the case.

Trump CFO’s plea deal could make him a prosecution witness

Weisselberg said nothing as he left court, offering no reply when a journalist asked whether he had any message for Trump.

Weisselberg’s lawyer Nicholas Gravante Jr.(*) said his client pleaded guilty “to put an end to this case and the years-long legal and personal nightmares it has caused for him and his family.”

“We are glad to have this behind him,” the lawyer added.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement that Weisselberg’s plea “directly implicates the Trump Organization in a wide range of criminal activity and requires Weisselberg to provide invaluable testimony in the upcoming trial against the corporation.”

“We look forward to proving our case in court against the Trump Organization,” he added.

Testimony by Weisselberg could potentially weaken the Trump Organization’s defense. If convicted, the company could face fines or potentially be placed on probation and be forced to change certain business practices.

The company praised Weisselberg on Thursday as a trusted, honorable veteran employee who has been “persecuted and threatened by law enforcement, particularly the Manhattan district attorney, in their never-ending, politically motivated quest to get President Trump.”

In a statement, the company accused prosecutors of trying to pressure Weisselberg to cast aspersions on Trump, and of stretching to make a criminal case out of familiar executive perks such as a company car.

The company said it has done nothing wrong, won’t plead guilty and looks forward “to having our day in court.”

Weisselberg, 75, is the only person to face criminal charges so far in the Manhattan district attorney’s long-running investigation of the company’s business practices.

Seen as one of Trump’s most loyal business associates, Weisselberg was arrested in July 2021. His lawyers have argued the Democrat-led district attorney’s office was punishing him because he wouldn’t offer information that would damage Trump.

The district attorney has also been investigating whether Trump or his company lied to banks or the government about the value of its properties to obtain loans or reduce tax bills.

Then-District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who started the investigation, last year directed his deputies to present evidence to a grand jury and seek an indictment of Trump, according to former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who previously led the probe.

But after Vance left office, his successor, Bragg, allowed the grand jury to disband without charges. Both prosecutors are Democrats. Bragg has said the investigation is continuing.

The Trump Organization is not involved in Weisselberg’s guilty plea Thursday and is scheduled to be tried in the alleged compensation scheme in October.
Prosecutors alleged that the company gave untaxed fringe benefits to senior executives, including Weisselberg, for 15 years. Weisselberg alone was accused of defrauding the federal government, state and city out of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and undeserved tax refunds.

Under state law, punishment for the most serious charge against Weisselberg, grand larceny, could carry a penalty as high as 15 years in prison. But the charge carries no mandatory minimum, and most first-time offenders in tax-related cases never end up behind bars.

His sentencing won’t happen until after the trial of the Trump Organization, which is facing tax fraud charges punishable by a fine of double the amount of unpaid taxes, or $250,000, whichever is larger.

Trump has decried the New York investigations as a “political witch hunt” and has said his company’s actions were standard practice in the real estate business and in no way a crime.

Last week, Trump sat for a deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ parallel civil investigation into allegations that Trump’s company misled lenders and tax authorities about asset values. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times.

*son of Gambino Crime Family lawyer, Nicholas Gravante, Sr.


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@oromagi

I wonder who Trump is going to make an offer to that they cannot refuse?
#3
Dr.Franklin
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based trump committing tax evasion
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Lindsey Graham for sure.  Dead girls and live boys as Gov Edwards used to say.j

Harriet Hageman in WY led the Never Trump campaign at the 2016 convention, called him a racist xenophobe in 2018 and then nominated him president at the 2020 convention calling him the greatest president of her lifetime

He clearly has something on Ted Cruz who went from never Trumper to ever Trumper in a single day.
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Why is your title that trump gave compensation off the books when all u have established is that the organization did? I mean I'd think is probably guilty of something, but u haven't established that.
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Weisselberg was CFO, number 2 in the company.  The only person with authority to compensate Weisselberg is the #1 executive and owner of Trump Org, Trump.

Besides which, the number one corrupt under the table thing of value that Trump gave Weisselberg was an apartment at Trump Towers worth about $5 million dollars tax free.  Do you think somebody other than Trump has the power to hand out free apartments at Trump Tower?

17 days later

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Weisselberg was CFO, number 2 in the company.  The only person with authority to compensate Weisselberg is the #1 executive and owner of Trump Org, Trump.

Besides which, the number one corrupt under the table thing of value that Trump gave Weisselberg was an apartment at Trump Towers worth about $5 million dollars tax free.  Do you think somebody other than Trump has the power to hand out free apartments at Trump Tower?

Weisselberg was with the Trump family for decades. Not very likely that he will throw Trump under the bus.
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Weisselberg was with the Trump family for decades. Not very likely that he will throw Trump under the bus.

He took a plea deal on 15 felonies two week ago.  Part of that deal is that he must tell everything he knows about the Trump org or lose his plea deal.
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Weisselberg was with the Trump family for decades. Not very likely that he will throw Trump under the bus.

He took a plea deal on 15 felonies two week ago.  Part of that deal is that he must tell everything he knows about the Trump org or lose his plea deal.
How can his testimony be credible if he already pleaded guilty to a felony?

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How can his testimony be credible if he already pleaded guilty to a felony?
Because if he lies, it is jail for life

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The actual title of the article is "Trump Org. CFO expected to plead guilty in NY tax case" [1]

Additionally, there was no primary source document linked to in the entire article, only other AP News articles and one New York Times article.

Furthermore, the New York Times article that was linked to also failed to link to any primary source document.

This is all, therefore, hearsay [2] and not actual proof of anything. 

Without any citation of primary source documents, [3] it is impossible to determine if the news reporting is factual or complete fiction. From what I could tell, the links were just a Rabbit Hole [4] to more news reports, which linked to more news reports, which then linked to more news reports, at which point I stopped trying because it appeared to be hearsay and not credible reporting. 

SOURCES:
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Without any citation of primary source documents, [3] it is impossible to determine if the news reporting is factual or complete fiction. From what I could tell, the links were just a Rabbit Hole [4] to more news reports, which linked to more news reports, which then linked to more news reports, at which point I stopped trying because it appeared to be hearsay and not credible reporting. 
An adequate summary of the epistemology of the left-tribe circa 2012 - present
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Yeah. When I was a kid I feel like the news was different.

In high school I wrote a long, 30-page senior project on bias in the media. It was peer reviewed by one journalist and another communications scholar. Back then, at least, the news talked about the same topics. They just had disagreements on the facts and think tanks and interpretations of the facts. There was a lot of cherry picking and such in the news, but the news largely tried to talk about facts and not opinions.

But then, in 2014 or 2015 or so, idr when exactly, the news radically shifted, with the left and the right becoming two completely different bubbles.

I also think sourcing and journalistic standards of reporting went drastically downhill since 2014 or 2015 or so. AP stopped linking to sources altogether, as did Reuters and all the other newswires when, before, they would actually provide the link.

Furthermore, there was a lot more logical analysis and syllogistic thinking in the news before 2015. Around 2015, primary sources and studies and linking was replaced with experts and talking heads.

This wasn't just on the left. This was on both sides of the aisle. 

Now the news is basically a fifth grade essay with schoolyard logic, "my daddy says your daddy is stupid," type articles.

I largely have stopped reading the news because of it. I now almost exclusively read the Congressional Research Service, Just Facts, ProCon.org and a few select think tanks like AIER and EPI (just to understand the liberal opinion) and other websites of similar quality.

I will also occasionally browse the WEF's website and Rand Corporation, not for factual reporting, because most of it is complete horse manure, but because the Rand Corporation is basically the Defence Department's think tank and the WEF is the collection of businesses that control many governments and economies. These two entities control a lot of the global political scene, so I like to see what horrific policy they will try to shove down people's throats next. It's kind like reading the news before the news, lol.
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The actual title of the article is "Trump Org. CFO expected to plead guilty in NY tax case" [1]
That is why you'll find that Title as the first line of my post.  

Additionally, there was no primary source document linked to in the entire article, only other AP News articles and one New York Times article.
No need.  I am not sourcing a debate, I am starting a conversation with a news clipping.  AP News is credited and anybody wishing to verify can just google the headline.

Furthermore, the New York Times article that was linked to also failed to link to any primary source document.
You are hallucinating again.  No NYT articles were referenced or linked to in this post.

This is all, therefore, hearsay [2] and not actual proof of anything. 
It's not a debate.  It is a news clipping.  Only the very lazy or the very dumb would have any trouble verifying the article or its contents.

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Additionally, there was no primary source document linked to in the entire article, only other AP News articles and one New York Times article.
No need.  I am not sourcing a debate, I am starting a conversation with a news clipping.  AP News is credited and anybody wishing to verify can just google the headline.

It's not a debate.  It is a news clipping.
Yea.... but this is a debate site so you can understand the confusion. Especially since it's so obvious that the last thing this world needs is yet another parrot taking zero responsibility for the veracity of the content of the quotes they repeat.

I mean this is the heart of actual disinformation, not some evil scheme from the top (there is some of that probably), but chain of people filtering claims, taking no responsibility for completeness or confirmation, until the end result is confirmation bias made manifest.
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The actual title of the article is "Trump Org. CFO expected to plead guilty in NY tax case" [1]
That is why you'll find that Title as the first line of my post.  

Additionally, there was no primary source document linked to in the entire article, only other AP News articles and one New York Times article.
No need.  I am not sourcing a debate, I am starting a conversation with a news clipping.  AP News is credited and anybody wishing to verify can just google the headline.

Furthermore, the New York Times article that was linked to also failed to link to any primary source document.
You are hallucinating again.  No NYT articles were referenced or linked to in this post.

This is all, therefore, hearsay [2] and not actual proof of anything. 
It's not a debate.  It is a news clipping.  Only the very lazy or the very dumb would have any trouble verifying the article or its contents.
Trump files 6 bankruptcies. The tax fraud and evasions will soon be exposed by Trump ORG CFO.
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That is why you'll find that Title as the first line of my post. 
Except it wasn't...

Your title left out "expected to."

And in the original article, you know, from the Associated Press, that I linked to, (since you didn't even cite a link for your original post) they linked to a NYT article.

I did this because, since you didn't leave a link to where your article was from, I had to go find it, like I normally have to do when you claim things, and fact check it, like I normally have to do when you claim things, because, as usual, you got the facts wrong.


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That is why you'll find that Title as the first line of my post. 
Except it wasn't...

Your title left out "expected to."
  • No I didn't.  You are reading an article from Article from Aug 15th, before Weisselberg pleaded.  I am using an Aug 18th article, after the Weisselberg's plea became fact.  That should be obvious.
And in the original article, you know, from the Associated Press, that I linked to, (since you didn't even cite a link for your original post) they linked to a NYT article.
  • same deal.  I assume your outdated article doesn't link because it is outdated.
fact check it, like I normally have to do when you claim things, because, as usual, you got the facts wrong.
  • Sorry man.  By any measure, your sourcing  here and elsewhere is fucked up.  I'm not saying I'm perfect.  I am just saying you suck at checking your facts.

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That is why you'll find that Title as the first line of my post. 
Except it wasn't...

Your title left out "expected to."
  • No I didn't.  You are reading an article from Article from Aug 15th, before Weisselberg pleaded.  I am using an Aug 18th article, after the Weisselberg's plea became fact.  That should be obvious.
And in the original article, you know, from the Associated Press, that I linked to, (since you didn't even cite a link for your original post) they linked to a NYT article.
  • same deal.  I assume your outdated article doesn't link because it is outdated.
fact check it, like I normally have to do when you claim things, because, as usual, you got the facts wrong.
  • Sorry man.  By any measure, your sourcing  here and elsewhere is fucked up.  I'm not saying I'm perfect.  I am just saying you suck at checking your facts.
Maybe he has a reason for not sucking your facts because you are admitting you are not perfect.
Allow him to check your facts instead of sucking at it.

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Maybe he has a reason for not sucking your facts because you are admitting you are not perfect.
Allow him to check your facts instead of sucking at it.
  • Public-Choice has every right to check my facts
  • Public-Choice has no right to demand I check my facts for him
  • Public-Choice has a responsibility to hold his fact checking to at least the same standard he demands